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He set aside the sponge and rinsed his glass, balancing it upside down in the dish drainer as he glanced out the small kitchen window again. A tiny fingernail of moon shone down, the reflected light doing little to combat the shadows over the yard.The waning crescent. Four weeks already then. Best get on with it. There was only so much night. He made one final round of the house, checking doors and windows, testing locks and adjusting blinds, drawing curtains just that bit tighter over the gaps, then he lifted the iron keyring off the hook and began the tedious process of unlocking the basement door.He’d once thought it overkill, the sheer number of locks, the second door at the bottom of the stairs where he had to repeat the process, the inner barred grate with chain and padlock leading to a brick and slate lined tunnel beyond.If anything, it wasn’t enough.The old, gas-burning lamps flared to life, and he walked the long passage, steps whispering over worn stone. The air was stale and cool, carrying with it smells of damp, and dirt.Contrary to expectation, it was warmer after he passed the final door, blessed timber groaning shut behind him as he winced.Despite the circumstance, a strange sort of giddiness bubbled up within him. Even the way he carried himself, measured steps transitioning to a rolling gait as the shadows drew near, eager to whisper their secrets. “Sweeeeeeeeeet-heart!” he half-sang, fingernails scratching along rough walls as he progressed. “Daddy’s home,” he added, unable to stop himself, lips curling, pleased and smug.Of course she didn’t answer. She never did.A cool pocket of air, the scent of damp earth, and he’d passed beneath the tiny stream that trickled through the woods at the edge of the yard. A funny thing, running water. Able to cause so much havoc if not properly respected.“Playtime, Rey! Come out, come out, little kitty-cat.” He peered around corners, glanced up at the ceiling (learned that one the hard way), in shadowy corners, under the utility shelf. “Come on, baby, we don’t have much time. House is all ready for you, locked up nice and tight.”He reached the final door, open and hanging loosely from the hinges.Again.He sighed and shook his head. Stars, she was amazing. So determined and capable and smart.He checked her room, just to be sure, looked in the closet, under the bed, even in the little shower cubicle. She wasn’t in the kitchenette, nor had she hidden herself between the footstool and sofa again.A scraping sound crept across his ears, followed by the clang as a door slammed, chains rattling as her steps faded down the network of tunnels.The faintest hint of acrid smoke crept along on stale air.“Damn it, Rey, not again!”Hoarse, hissing laughter echoed, and the cadence of her steps increased.There was little to be done about the burning. Hopefully the fire doors and sprinklers would prevent the worst of it from spreading this time. Rebuilding got expensive. And annoying. So annoying. The annoyance was, in fact, the worst part. I wasn’t as if he needed three houses just for himself, and Rey clearly couldn’t be trusted to have the run of any of them to herself.He sighed and crept to the fork in the tunnel, nostrils flaring as he closed his eyes and breathed deeply, trying to pick up her trail. Smoke. Stale earth. Water.Ah.There she was.He smiled to himself, teeth flashing in the shadows, and then he was off, around the corner and racing to catch up.She’d doubled back from the house and taken the side passage that led out in the woods.A chase, then.He put his head down and ran. He could practically taste her joy, night air singing with it. He paused at the tunnel exit in the woods, took an edifying breath he didn’t need before pushing through the wards. It seemed she’d taken the time to add a little extra kick to the magical barrier spells.His skin tingled, a little gift she’d left him, and he shook his head against the buzzing in his ears. Kitten had claws, scratch-scratch.“Re-ey,” he called, feet making no sound on the leaf litter, clothing slipping past brush and low hanging branches. These were his woods, his territory.The air was silent and crisp, sharp with smoke and the sweetness of her.The absence of night sounds was of little concern. What lived in these woods was smart enough to follow the instinct to hide on this night. He stood in a little clearing and tilted his head up, turning a slow circle.It was fortunate he didn’t need the light of stars and moon, considering there wasn’t any, angry clouds blotting out the sky.Funny, it hadn’t smelled like rain before now.A scrape, the pop and crack of deadfall.Someone was getting bored with her little game.“Already, Sweetheart? You need me to find you so badly?”A muffled swear and rustling noises. Oh, maybe she hadn’t meant for him to hear. Little matter. He knew where she was now, and she wasn’t going to get far.He turned and strolled, even tucked his hands in the pockets of his trousers. Just out for a casual walk in the darkness, nothing to see, nowhere to be…He came to the edge of the tree line and paused, glanced around. Was she there, crouched in the shadows of the shed? Perhaps hidden among the bushes by the pool?Hm, no, not this time.A shadow darted forward from the woodpile, bent low and racing in a skittering, scrambling trail. He let her put a few more yards between them, crouched into a runner’s start, and then launched himself through the grass, an animal lope in human form, gathering his muscles for that final leap before he landed over her, crushing her down into the grass with a little oof on her part.“Get off me! Let me go you arse!”He chuckled and lowered his weight more fully onto her, pinned her flat and really let her feel what her little game had done to him. She froze, breath too fast and her delicate little heart racing. She shivered a little, and he pressed his nose against the base of her neck, breathed deeply and dragged it over her skin.“No, please! No!”He licked the side of her neck, nipped her ear, and she whimpered.“Like you like this, Kitten,” he muttered, breath stirring her hair before he nuzzled her again. “All helpless, at my mercy.” He rocked against her, pressing her hips into the ground and his hips against her ass, erection heavy and hard against her absolutely perfect cheeks beneath him.“No! NO!” she screeched, squirming under him, a pathetic little attempt at escape.“Oh, come on, Rey. You can do better than that.” He thrust against her ass again, and she scrabbled at the sparse grass and hardy weeds, tearing up handfuls in a shower of dirt from the roots. He scoffed and grabbed her wrists in one hand, pinning her arms as he raised up just enough to tear her thin leggings away and make quick work of his own belt and zipper.Rey jerked and twisted, managed to roll to her side and buck him off for a split-second, her scream of rage echoing in the night when he managed to reclaim control, lying fully on her again, pressing her into the ground with her head tucked under his chin as he tutted. “Now Sweetheart, you knew this would happen. You can’t get away from me, Rey. You’re mine.”He worked his hand between them, fingers unerringly finding their way between her thighs and he chuckled. “Positively dripping,” he whispered against her cheek, brushing a kiss there even as he pressed two fingers inside her all-too-willing entrance. “You want this,” he assured. “You need it.”She shook her head, hissing her denial into the ground, even as her hips shifted, body seeking him out.“Now, now, patience my kitty-cat.”She shrieked, barely muffled by the restriction to her breathing his weight caused.“Oh, so angry, little one,” he murmured, chuckling as he pulled his hand away and she wailed at the loss, angry and needy. “Perhaps I should leave you like this, hm?”And there, finally, the edge of fear.“You aren’t playing very nicely, Rey,” he continued. “Running off.” He pushed her thighs farther apart. “Burning my greenhouse.” He lifted her hips, angling them as she whimpered, still refusing to beg, trembling more from need than fear.Oh, well.She howled as he thrust inside her, clawed at the ground and squirmed in some attempt to escape from the intrusion.“Hush now,” he muttered, “hold still.” He held the back of her neck, pinned her legs under his own, and pulled back, thrusting forward again with no mercy. She skidded a little on the ground before her clawed hands found purchase. He did it again and a half-choked sob escaped her. “That’s right, Sweetheart, just be a good girl and take it.”Her fingers flexed, a growl creeping free of her throat, even as her inner walls quivered, tightening around him as she clenched.It was hard to see in the absence of light, but her bare arms and creamy thighs darkened, the rasp of coarse fur meeting his touch, ruffling in the light breeze.Close then.Rey arched her back, hips and ass pushed back to meet him as the shape of her spine changed.Lengthened.Her hands and feet folded in, then out, razor sharp claws cutting into the earth, raking out great furrows.“That’s right, baby,” he cooed, hips and thighs slapping against her ass and the backs of her legs. “Just let go.”He growled, a hoarse, feline scream of protest, but her tail broke free, lashing side to side as she pressed back to meet every thrust of his body, welcoming his attention no matter what she claimed now or later.She needed this.Needed him.Tentacles unfurled from her ribs, two on each side.
Uh oh.
They reached, stretched, and he threw his weight forward, pressing her against the ground again. “Naughty kitten,” he said, licking the side of her neck, then using his own talons to tear the shoulder of her t-shirt away, revealing freckled skin (neat trick when he knew she rarely saw the sun) and patchy, black fur. He nipped at her shoulder.“No,” she panted. “Not that, no, no…”“You know how this works, Rey.”He raised his head, let his jaw drop, and relished in the burn as his teeth shifted, fangs dropping, lengthening to delicate points.He dragged the tips of his fangs along her neck and she shivered, trapped there under him.“Not,” she began, and he struck, angled for a bite and fangs breaking through before she managed the yet.“Mm, oh,” she squirmed, moving what little she could under the weight of his body, impaled on the twin intrusions of his fangs in her neck and his cock deep in her cunt. He drank lazily, almost as much blood running over her skin to drip in the grass as made it down his own throat.His thrusting had slowed, her body taut and quivering around him as he drank and lazily rolled his hips.Rey whined.He swallowed.She squirmed.He thrust slowly.She moaned.He closed his lips over the slowing wound and sucked.“Mm, Ben…”Fuck, it sounded good to hear that name, his name, after so long, the drawn out moan a bonus. He lapped at the bite mark. “Mm, Rey,” he teased. “I think you like this.”She shook her head with a giggle. “Nuh-uh, want it fast.”He gave her another long, slow roll and she clenched. “You sure about that?”“Yep,” she insisted, popping the ‘p’ with a smack of her lips and tongue.Ben sealed his mouth on the wound, sucked hard enough to bruise, and was rewarded with a final pull of blood and magic. He licked his lips and nuzzled behind her ear. “Give it to me, sweetheart,” he ordered. “You know you’re close.”“Noooo,” she insisted, half-drunk on the power of the night. He slipped a hand beneath her, fingers almost lazily finding her clit to press and roll as he kissed her cheek. She was still running a little hot. He bit her again, on the shoulder that time, and she moaned, twitching beneath him, hips rocking in an attempt to claim what she wanted from him. “Beeeeennnnnn,” she whined, “Not enough!” even as she clenched in time with every pull of his mouth. Still feeding, he lifted his hips slightly, letting her plant her knees once more, neither of them holding back as she pushed back to meet every punishing thrust.She screamed as she came, that hoarse mix of human pleasure and animal cries he knew so well by now, as her body convulsed and clenched, sucking him in, holding him there, and it was too much. His own cries were muffled against the base of her neck as he came, great pulses inside her as they collapsed flat on the grass.The smell of clover mixed with the smoke from the greenhouse, the ground beneath them springy and soft with new plant life, spring and summer growth in the depths of autumn.The wind shifted, carried the scent of rain just before the clouds burst, fat drops soaking everything and extinguishing her little experiment in arson. She joined him in the shower, rode him in their bed as the first streaks of dawn broke safely on the other side of blinds and curtains covering tinted, shuttered windows.She yawned as she settled in beside him, eye-teeth still more than human sharp but mostly human looking otherwise, save for the gold-green cat’s eyes that gave him a long, slow blink. She’d be mostly human the next week or so, then whatever feline form or half-form her body picked for the next moon cycle.“I love you, too, Sweetheart.” She rubbed her cheeks against his chest and settled in to rest. Still, he couldn’t quite contain his curiosity.“A displacer beast, though? Really, Rey?”He felt the heat of her blush as she hid her face and squirmed uncomfortably. “It was boring in the cell. I might have watched that Dungeons and Dragons movie a couple of times.”“You do recall the whole four weeks down there was your idea?”She hmph’d and pinched his nipple. “You cheated, too!” she complained. “You weren’t supposed to feed before you chased me.”“Didn’t want to hurt you for real. You know how sick you get if I take too much. Almost human-slow.”She hummed, and he could sense her sly grin. “Did you add a splash of otter to your pig’s blood then?” Clearly, she’d also re-watched Buffy and Angel while playing prisoner.Ben groaned. “Ugh, you know I hate otter. Besides, I didn’t drink pig’s blood.”“Cow?” she asked with a mock-gasp.“You know perfectly well it was B-positive that didn’t pass screening at the blood bank.” She mumbled and he chuckled, stroking her arm with his fingertip. “My poor, jealous kitten. Humans are food. Kitty-cats are for playtime and companionship.” She shivered and rubbed her breasts against his side, hard little nipples poking at his skin. “Too close to sunrise to start anything again,” he mumbled, already slipping under the weight of the day.“I had fun, though,” she admitted. “I like being your prisoner.” A silent pause. “Ben?”“Hm?”“What do you think of me trying tiger again?”“Little witch, you will be the death of me.”“Good thing you’re already dead then, my vampire.”“Undead,” he mumbled.“Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to,” she hummed, drooling a little on his skin as she crossed over to sleep.His unlife would never be dull with Rey. It wasn’t so bad, being assigned as her keeper, responsible for drawing off the excess magic she couldn’t control. He was glad she was willing, now. The first few decades had been a challenge.